Questions?

Skills

Heating Pad - 5x15cm

Description: These DC powered heating pads are perfect for near-body heating applications. They get warm to the touch but not too hot. Simply apply 5VDC to the wire leads and within minutes, the pad will begin to warm up.

These heating pads are constructed using a mesh of Polyester filament and Micro Metal Conductive Fiber folded into a protective Polyimide Film. The fact that these are low power, flexible and draw little power makes them ideal for things like hand-warmers and other heated garments. Maybe hook up a microcontroller and some sensors and make your own climate-controlled hoodie?

Customer Comments

I once installed heating pads similar to these under motorcycle grips. They kept my hands nice and toasty when the mercury plunged. I preferred them to pricier integrated heated grips, as I could continue to use whichever grips I liked. This heating pad seems to be about the right size for that application. Attach to the bars with hairspray and add a rheostat to control the temperature. Take power from a circuit that is powered only when the ignition is on (e.g., brake lights), so you won’t drain the battery if you forget to turn off the heating pads. If the bars are hollow, you could run the wires inside.

Hey, got a couple questions that I hope some of you can answer. I’m looking to install some of these in clothing, are they washable? Can I run these through a lilypad arduino board and a 5v battery with enough heat generated to feel through fabric? If anyone can answer either one of these questions that would be great, thanks!

“The fact that these are low power, flexible and draw little power makes them ideal for things like hand-warmers and other heated garments. Maybe hook up a microcontroller and some sensors and make your own climate-controlled hoodie?”

NO!…you mean: “these are great to keep your electronics warm on your HAB proyects… or Higher.”

I am planning to use these in my gloves, would removing the plastic layers cause any damage? Would there be any danger of directly touching the internal conducting threads to skin when the plastic layers are removed? Thanks!

I’m thinking these might work as mirror heaters for my telescope to get rid of condensate. Looks like they might run a little hot though. Maybe hook two in series and run them off a 9v battery with a pot. Shouldn’t be too hard to wrap a couple of these around the primary on the inside of the tube. An arduino might be a little overkill to regulate the temp though.

Since these are basically fixed resistors, and thus subject to Ohm’s law, you can regulate their temperature by reducing the input voltage, or chopping the input (PWM or more simply, turn it on until it reaches your desired temperature, turn it off, repeat).

You could reduce the input voltage from your main supply (12V car battery?) with an adjustable regulator such as the LM317. This won’t be hugely efficient, as the regulator will get hot itself, but it’s easy to do.

These pads will draw 0.7A at 5v for 3.5 watts and about 7.14 ohms. At these ratings with a 23C ambient temp, this pad will reach ~70C. I cant remember exactly what the equation, but the temp is proportional to the power input minus the power dissipation, which is exponential/related to the surface area of the pad and the ambient temp/heat resistance of the surrounding medium. if you can get these variables and find the equation (try something like “calculating power dissipation” on Google), you should be able to get data-points for current (and because this is restive, voltage)/ temp at at specific ambient temperatures to air.

P=oeAT4 is a thermodynamics equation that can be applied to tell how high the radiating temperature of the surface will be for a given power.This equation can not be applied to conduction or convection however. Running tests on this to create a graph is not a bad idea and is a very good way of predicting what the temperature would be at any given power dissipation

I am thinking about using two of these to warm a solar battery bank in an insulated box. I live in Michigan and my battery bank is in a detached garage where temp can drop below freezing quite often. I have a DC charge controller and am thinking about wiring two of these pads off the 3V DC port. The controller has direct DC outputs and should recharge the less than amp draw.
Any thoughts? I am also looking for a dc temp controller to automatically monitor the temp so I am not drawing power unless needed. I am not sure if this type of temp controller for dc exists. Any help is appreciated.

The first thing that came to mind for me was heated seats in my car. Just peel back the fabric and tape these things down. My question is whether these could hold up to both the direct pressure and the rubbing involved. Could I get an answer to how durable these things are? Thanks.

Can someone please measure the resistance of the heating pad? That way I and everyone else can calculate the current and wattage at various voltages. The ‘warmup profile’ is interesting but can’t really be used to figure out how it’ll behave in different applications. The video gives a coarse way of calculating the resistance by stating the current draw at 5v… but I’d rather just know the specs of this thing.

Great product

So far so good !

Ive been Using them to make a heated jacket using a voltage regulator to control the temperature maximum output.voltages above 5v produce a great deal of near body heating to the point of reaching temperatures that could cause slight burns if cantact with skin happened. Tested run time with a 4ahr battery found it lasted for well over 2hrs

SparkFun is an online retail store that sells the bits and pieces to
make your electronics projects possible. Whether it's a robot that can
cook your breakfast or a GPS cat tracking device, our products and
resources are designed to make the world of electronics more accessible.

In addition to products, SparkFun also offers
classes and online tutorials to help educate
individuals in the wonderful world of embedded electronics.